Nigeria Game

**Duncan Gardner** · 30/05/2004, 6:01 PM

Aye that's right Mick, I had to think for hours before remembering all their names

**pineapple stu** · 30/05/2004, 8:19 PM

Originally Posted by Slash/ED

To go back over old ground it's a disgrace Jason Byrne isn't in this squad.

Wasn't there talk that the reason Kerr didn't call up Byrne or Crowe (who were on the reserve list) was because it would cause Shels' and Bohs' games to be postponed, which would cause more disruption to the teams than it was worth, especially after the Semi-pro tournament? Think there was also talk of having a gap week for international games (like in the English Premiership) because of the possibility of players in the senior squad and the probability of players in the U-21 squad.

On the friendly thing, I think it is our first defeat since Nigeria. Since then, we've played -

Hiroshima (2-1?)
Finland (3-0)
Scotland (2-0)
Norway (1-0)
Canada (3-0)
Brazil (0-0)
Czechs (2-1)
Poland (0-0)
Romania (1-0)

Don't remember the team though...

**Slash/ED** · 30/05/2004, 8:24 PM

He's put Byrne, and Crowe, on 'standby' so that can't be it. It would be an absolute farce if he didn't call them up because it would disrupt fixtures and instead we get this semi pro tournament rubbish disrupting fixtures instead.

**lopez** · 30/05/2004, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by brine2

The Dutch lost 1-0 at home to Belgium tonight.

Looked tired, unmotivated and just plain crap.

Sounds like us then.

**1MickCollins** · 31/05/2004, 2:19 AM

Originally Posted by tricky_colour

Anyone know the team who played when we lost 2:1 to Nigeria
in Dublin????
And was that the last friendly we lost?

Ireland Shay Given, Steve Finnan, Kenny Cunningham, Steve Staunton, Ian Harte, Jason McAteer (Stephen Reid, 46), Matt Holland, Roy Keane (Mark Kinsella, 63), Kevin Kilbane (Gary Kelly, 61), Damien Duff (David Connolly, 61), Robbie Keane (Clinton Morrison, 61).

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/worldc...eland.nigeria/

**tetsujin1979** · 31/05/2004, 9:30 AM

My 2 cents on the game (copied from another board):

I watched the game in Frazer's on O'Connell Street in Dublin, with a load of Nigerians! To be fair, there wasn't much publicity about the game, and most of the pubs I asked about it didn't even know it was on, but still it was pretty embarassing to be outnumbered by the "away" team if you follow.

Anyway, the game was dire. Kerr has blamed tired legs (it was less than 48 hours since the Romania game) and rightly so. What I did notice was that as the second half wore on, the Irish were showing better conditioning, no offence to the Nigerians, but I'd imagine this is a result of playing in more professional club surroundings.

Positives were few and far between - thought Alan Lee did very well to feed off the scraps he was given, and the previously mentioned fitness/conditioning/endurance or whatever you want to call it was a little heartening.

Negatives: Pretty much everything else!
Maybury isn't up to international standard, he was to blame for the first goal for being closer to the half way line than the box when the ball was released and never got to close down the runner
Ditto Doherty. Well in partnership with Cunningham anyway. The lack of pace between the 2 of them was repeatedly exposed by the Nigerians.
Midfield pairing was non-existent - it took me about half an hour to realise Kinsella was on the pitch! Both him and Holland were massively out-muscled by the opposition.
I thought after the Czech game, Kerr had stopped Robbie Keane's desire to come deep and beat every defender before scoring. It was back in evidence against Romania, and here it was worse. To be fair there was no passes coming from midfield, so he had to go and collect it, but I can't recall many occasions when he made the simple pass in favour of beating 3 men.
Subs didn't do much, but at 2-0 what can you do? I did expect a little more from Rowlands, after knee-capping his opposite number against Romania I thought he had a bit of fight in him.

Kerr has stated it'll take 3 years to see the benefits of games like these (experience for squad members, etc) and fair enough it probably will.
First Lesson - NEVER PLAY 2 GAMES IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS!!

**Lionel Ritchie** · 31/05/2004, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

My 2 cents on the game (copied from another board):

I watched the game in Frazer's on O'Connell Street in Dublin

Does anyone out there know a pub in Limerick showing the Jamaica match?
What channel was the nigeria game on? I'd to listen to it on the friggin radio.
Tough going. We were bloody hopeless.

**tiktok** · 31/05/2004, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by Lionel Ritchie

Does anyone out there know a pub in Limerick showing the Jamaica match?
What channel was the nigeria game on? I'd to listen to it on the friggin radio.
Tough going. We were bloody hopeless.

The game will be on Setanta, so any pub with Sky Digital should have access, I'd ring around beforehand though, because not too many seem that bothered with it.

only1kilbane · 31/05/2004, 10:43 AM

yeah just back from game this morning . What a load of ******. The players were strolling around the park like it was a sunday morning run out and the only player who seemed to give a toss was martin rowlands who at least put in a little but of fight.

Terrible attendance at game which surprised me considering the amount of irish over there .

Nothing gained from game really hopefully wed he will play mc geady and at least we can get a look at him !

**tiktok** · 31/05/2004, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by only1kilbane

yeah just back from game this morning . What a load of ******. The players were strolling around the park like it was a sunday morning run out and the only player who seemed to give a toss was martin rowlands who at least put in a little but of fight.

Terrible attendance at game which surprised me considering the amount of irish over there .

Nothing gained from game really hopefully wed he will play mc geady and at least we can get a look at him !

if you substitute the word 'support' for 'attendance' that pretty much summed up last thursday night for me

**dublinred** · 31/05/2004, 11:15 AM

Originally Posted by only1kilbane

yeah just back from game this morning . What a load of ******. The players were strolling around the park like it was a sunday morning run out and the only player who seemed to give a toss was martin rowlands who at least put in a little but of fight.

Terrible attendance at game which surprised me considering the amount of irish over there .

Nothing gained from game really hopefully wed he will play mc geady and at least we can get a look at him !

I think Kerr should of learned a lot from the game , Kinsella needs to retire not at the races at all , Maybury and McPahil are not good enough , Lee does not look good enough either but considering how hard he tried and the scraps he got he should get at least another chance. I wasn't too surprised at the attendance given the lack of promotion and terrible organisation , the local cab drivers din't even know a game was on , �25 quid for the cheapest ticket was also a rip off considering holland is only 20euro next weekend.Staging the games in the valley was also a big mistake loftus road would have got at least 17,000.

**lopez** · 31/05/2004, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by londonred

I wasn't too surprised at the attendance given the lack of promotion and terrible organisation , the local cab drivers din't even know a game was on , �25 quid for the cheapest ticket was also a rip off considering holland is only 20euro next weekend.Staging the games in the valley was also a big mistake loftus road would have got at least 17,000.

I agree. It was only the people who read the Irish Post or The Voice or Charlton supporters that would have known about the tournament. Plenty of people I know didn't know about the game either.

Ticket prices were average for England (I was speaking to someone last night who said Chelsea's season ticket will be over �800 next year and will not include any cup games). The problem was that there was no imagination from the organisors. Most Nigerians for example couldn't afford the price and yet there was no suggestion that people on low wages could buy a ticket for �10 or �15 for a family, etc. Nor, if it's community biased, were free tickets handed out to schoolkids from schools with high ethnic diversity. Bums on seats always means that a few quid would be spent on programmes, Mars bars, etc. Finally, the Evening Standard likes to bang on about multi-cultural London this and that but its coverage of multi-culturalism steers no further than a black man shooting a white man (or vice versa). The organisers once again did themselves no favours, but the Standard didn't write one line about the tournament on Friday. An absolute disgrace!

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

I watched the game in Frazer's on O'Connell Street in Dublin, with a load of Nigerians! To be fair, there wasn't much publicity about the game, and most of the pubs I asked about it didn't even know it was on, but still it was pretty embarassing to be outnumbered by the "away" team if you follow...

It looks like the publicity was no better on the other side of the Irish sea.

**sylvo** · 31/05/2004, 4:40 PM

Originally Posted by lopez

I agree. It was only the people who read the Irish Post or The Voice or Charlton supporters that would have known about the tournament. Plenty of people I know didn't know about the game either.

Ticket prices were average for England (I was speaking to someone last night who said Chelsea's season ticket will be over �800 next year and will not include any cup games). The problem was that there was no imagination from the organisors. Most Nigerians for example couldn't afford the price and yet there was no suggestion that people on low wages could buy a ticket for �10 or �15 for a family, etc. Nor, if it's community biased, were free tickets handed out to schoolkids from schools with high ethnic diversity. Bums on seats always means that a few quid would be spent on programmes, Mars bars, etc. Finally, the Evening Standard likes to bang on about multi-cultural London this and that but its coverage of multi-culturalism steers no further than a black man shooting a white man (or vice versa). The organisers once again did themselves no favours, but the Standard didn't write one line about the tournament on Friday. An absolute disgrace!

It looks like the publicity was no better on the other side of the Irish sea.

To right, I never heard anything about the two game's in London while over in Ireland, the organisation of this tournament has been a joke from the word go, the organiser's did'nt do hardly any publicity for these game's and then over priced it, they proberly thought they'ed make a killing, they'll proberly be lucky to break even, Lopez we were at the US cup in 92 and that was a tournament was done properly, the ticket's were cheap the competion had publicity for month's and the local community's of the visiting team's were involved in the thing, (plus the player's took it serious, ;

) this was a shamble's. Bring on the reggea boyz

. I hear we're back at the Rose of Denmark again on wednesday.

**Beavis** · 31/05/2004, 6:31 PM

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

I watched the game in Frazer's on O'Connell Street in Dublin, with a load of Nigerians! To be fair, there wasn't much publicity about the game, and most of the pubs I asked about it didn't even know it was on, but still it was pretty embarassing to be outnumbered by the "away" team if you follow

Simple explanation there,nearby Parnell Street area has a huge African community.Often refered to as 'the hood' in Dublin.

Originally Posted by ticktok

if you substitute the word 'support' for 'attendance' that pretty much summed up last thursday night for me

Considering the little we had to cheer for on Saturday,the atmosphere among the irish crowd was pretty good.Definite improvement on Thursday despite the far lesser numbers.